Verdict

Dungeon Hunter 3 is my first introduction to the series, which by all accounts is probably a good thing. Previous iterations have consisted of typical dungeon crawling, hacking and slashing your ways progressively through areas, and looting your way to better gear. DH3 is a slight departure from that formula in that it is arena based. To progress an arena, you need to defeat enemies that are introduced to you in waves, and after each area is “defeated” you have the opportunity to get better equipment and skills from the in-game store.

In addition, the latest offering is free from the Play Store and instead allows for micro transactions to be made within the app. Fair enough.

Whatever your disposition towards the history of the series or indeed in-app purchases, you’ll be glad to hear the game is still fun.

As mentioned, being new to the series I can take an objective look at this title and I’ll begin by saying the graphics are excellent, the action is supported by a great soundtrack, and the controls are introduced to you well. Also the scale of game, considering it’s available to you at no cost, is very good. There are four worlds to play, each with four unique area’s and various levels of difficulty, so it has the potential to keep you busy for some time.

The character building aspects are basic, but work well. Upon starting the game you are prompted to choose from four classes, warlord, astronancer, trickster, and shaman – each with distinct play styles. In my run through, I opted for the warlord melee class and opted to brandish a giant hammer!

The controls are good, though one button located below your left thumb movement stick can be accidentally triggered – I found this rarely was a problem. Because you have spells, health, and stance buttons there’s plenty to do onscreen but the location and size of the buttons means that the view area isn’t impacted or obscured, which is good. I found the controls for the most part to be responsive, though because of their size I often found myself not quite hitting the mark on occasion. And though you can move around with relative ease it can be difficult to determine who exactly you are attacking due to the lack on a lock-on system – so something if feels like you’re just spinning around slashing until someone dies.

When you’ve dispatched all the waves you move onto the shop and use any keys you have to unlock the treasure for that level – which you then use to better existing equipment or purchase new items. Rinse and repeat.

Dungeon Hunter 3 is an attractive game, with excellent detail and smooth animation. I’m a huge fan of RPG’s, and those elements of character growth are perfectly capable on this scale. The arena game style didn’t strike a particular chord with me but there’s no arguing the game has lots of content if you want it. Not so much a DH3 specific issue, but out of game you get reminder notifications beckoning you to return and vanquish you foes, and though for the most part these are unobtrusive they’re a personal turn off for me in any game.

In summary, superb visuals, enough content to keep you busy, and you can’t argue with the price! I found it slightly slow, repetitive, and lack of tactile or visual feedback when engaging enemies felt slightly empty to me.